Come as You Are: A Gen X Romance

Hardy (The Seven Rules of Moving On) delivers an equally sweet and steamy contemporary romance—plus a healthy dose of nostalgia for all things 1980s and ’90s. Forty-six-year-old Ashley Cooke has taken over her family’s ski resort but struggles to turn a profit. Worse, her cheating ex-husband represents a resort conglomerate trying to buy the property out from under her. In a money-saving move, Ashley takes a chance on hiring help from Little Timber, the nearby sober-living home run by washed up rock star Matthew Madigan. Madigan, 53, is a recovering addict himself who barely survived the grunge era, and he’s eager to help the men at Little Timber get back on their feet. Sparks fly from the get-go between this well-matched pair—both of whom thought romance was behind them—as they bond over the pop culture of their youths. To make a relationship work, however, they’ll both have to learn to trust themselves again. Hardy does a great job creating characters at midlife; the older protagonists are refreshing—and their sex scenes are hot as hell. This is a winner. (Self-published)